Large maritime vessels have considerable momentum while in motion. Stopping these vessels quickly and over a short distance is of particular interest, for example when intercepting hostile vessels engaged in sea piracy. A drogue chute is a canopy shaped device that is used by mariners in a storm to keep the bow of the vessel pointed in the direction of the prevailing waves.
The publication “Concept of Using Drogue Chutes as a Ship Decelerator System” describes the use of a series of equal sized drogue chutes to decelerate a ship but fails to provide a complete solution to remotely intercepting and decelerating a vessel (see Chiang, L., Dunker, S., “Concept of Using Drogue Chutes as a Ship Decelerator System,” Waterside Security Conference, Marina di Carrara, Italy, November, 2010). Indeed, this publication describes this well recognized and long standing problem in its conclusion by stating “However, more testing and development would be required when sizing the system to full scale as the system would have a considerable increase in volume and weight, that could make it more difficult to maneuver and position than subscale systems. Attaching the system to oncoming vessel would be another challenging development to address. [sic]”
Deploying a decelerating system is further complicated by the variety of bow shapes, and potential misalignment between the ship trajectory and the deployed system. In addition, there are considerable forces involved in decelerating a ship with a hull displacement up to and exceeding 300,000 tons at 10-20+ knots without resorting to excessively bulky or heavy materials. A system is required that can deploy a lightweight and small form factor device remotely towards a hostile vessel, attach to the vessel and then decelerate the vessel in a short period of time.